Here, you’ll find a charming little downtown cloaked in both Spanish and adobe architecture, where boutiques, neighborhood restaurants, and offices are filled with locals who live mere blocks away. But creep a few blocks north of NW 36th Street through the mini-city of Virginia Gardens, and you’ll arrive in a strange slice of small town America sandwiched between the airport and Hialeah. It’s also difficult to determine because the city is hidden behind the northside of Miami International Airport, making it a historic hub for Pan Am and Eastern pilots who wanted to live close to work. With 34 municipalities in Miami-Dade County-and 10 of them including the word “Miami”-many would be hard pressed to tell you where, exactly, Miami Springs is located. Add in a little culture at the Coral Gables Museum and beers and wings at Titanic Brewing, and you’ve got a suburb that’s quite tough to beat. The new pedestrian-friendly Giralda Avenue has stepped in as South Florida’s best walkable dining complex with Luca Osteria joining Tur Kitckhen and Graziano’s as legitimate destination restaurants, while Bachour makes Miami’s best pastries not far away. Miracle Mile is eagerly awaiting the return of John Martin’s, but in the meantime the city’s best local theater company carries on at the Actor’s Playhouse. ![]() The Gables notched itself a James Beard nomination this year, with the addition of dumpling haven Zitz Sum. The Banyan Tree canopy that runs over much of the city is the stuff of car commercials, and the bustling downtown makes it easy to live here and never leave. No shame in that, though, as America’s first fully planned community is teeming with stunning Spanish architecture, limestone gates guarding, and some of South Florida’s dreamiest homes. But since that baseball stadium and the campus it sits on are called “University of Miami,” well, the suburban shoe fits. We know, we know, Gables lifers, The City Beautiful is its own, magical metropolitan area with its own downtown, major university, and baseball stadium. You can also traverse its miles of mountain bike tracks, which while not exactly Asheville South, offer a spot to get out in the dirt without driving for an entire day. Here you can rent a kayak and paddle through old mangroves, ending at beaches only reachable by boat and islands in the middle of Biscayne Bay. If you’d rather see nature without electric accoutrements, Oleta River State Park sits just north in North Miami Beach. Plus yearlong outdoor art installations in the plaza as well, making it the city’s best destination for outdoor art outside Wynwood.Ī short walk from MOCA in Griffing Park you’ll find the Electric Tree, a Banyan Tree adorned in fluorescent tubes that gives the city an iconic art piece to visit while in town. The Museum of Contemporary Art has begun running its Jazz on the Plaza series again after a COVID break, with free, Friday night concerts in its breezy outdoor space. Or, it can mean going a couple miles in North Miami, where you’ll find both swampy mangroves and provocative art a short distance apart. When people want to experience modern art and old Florida nature in the same afternoon, it typically involves a very long drive from museums in downtown and Wynwood all the way to the Everglades. Mark Handforth's "Electric Tree" | Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami ![]() ![]() The carefully curated collection of small-batch vintages is unmatched for a shop its size, and the monthly tastings it hosts give you a chance to try some of the rarer ones without investing in a whole bottle. Flight Wine Lounge might be the best wine bar in Dade County, and certainly its most underrated. Or the heartier gastropub fare at Sins, which also carries a fantastic selection of local craft beers and intriguing cocktails. Its main drag along NE 2nd Avenue is lined with boutiques and neighborhood restaurants, like the quaint European café confines of Borsalino. ![]() The Shores scores points not only for its architecture and proximity to the water, though. “Yes,” they opine as they partake in late-night cocktails at Sugar, “if I ever buy a house and settle down, it would definitely be in Miami Shores.” Miami’s immediate neighbor to the north, The Shores is a collection of mid-century bungalows that screams tropical suburb vibes while still being close enough to downtown Miami that living here doesn’t feel as far flung as, say, Boca. Miami Shores is the neighborhood that every condo-renting Brickell urbanite likes to call out when dreaming of a long-term future.
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